Partey is probably just biding his time.

It sounds like he is using us for his new contract.

[Fabrizio Romano] Thomas Partey to Arsenal is still in progress, Partey is discussing his contract renewal with Athletico, and Arsenal are waiting for his decision

Thomas says no to Arsenal and accept Atlético's renewal offer

Partey's over boys , look elsewhere

‘Twas always highly unlikely that he would come to this mid table rebuilding project.
Cheer up Claude, Upamecano is still available, albeit unlinked.

Well people seem quite enthused with xhaka of late. He can continue be the cornerstone of midfield

flobaba wrote:

‘Twas always highly unlikely that he would come to this mid table rebuilding project.
Cheer up Claude, Upamecano is still available, albeit unlinked.

I’m preparing for the summer of Sarr.
And Willian.

Gazza M wrote:

Well people seem quite enthused with xhaka of late. He can continue be the cornerstone of midfield

He's done well of late when we've defended deep in numbers, but I'm not convinced he can stand alone if his partner goes forward to support the attack.

Claudius wrote:
flobaba wrote:

‘Twas always highly unlikely that he would come to this mid table rebuilding project.
Cheer up Claude, Upamecano is still available, albeit unlinked.

I’m preparing for the summer of Sarr.
And Willian.

Whilst the likes of Willian, Stones and Coutinho are not ideal for a number of reasons, if Arteta gives his OK then I'm prepared to trust his judgement.
However if he's equally sure that he doesn't want them then he needs to speak up accordingly.

Claudius wrote:
flobaba wrote:

‘Twas always highly unlikely that he would come to this mid table rebuilding project.
Cheer up Claude, Upamecano is still available, albeit unlinked.

I’m preparing for the summer of Sarr.
And Willian.

Sarr would be a good signing.

I would prefer Gabriel or Upamecano.

Stones is meh. On his day he is good in the air, and can pass the ball out, but he doesn’t appear focused. Did the city move happen to soon? Would he gain motivation playing regularly under Arteta? 

The problem with stones, is that there seems to be too many questions that need answering. 

I don’t see willian coming here at all. I think it is just speculation to help Willian’s cause to get a new contract at Chelsea.

Sarr is small without being as good as Mustafi in the air. Imagine trying to okay a back 4 against Chelsea with Sarr. He’s strictly have to play at LB and LCB in a 3. He has that flexibility. Probably not as good bombing up and down as Tierney, so not an LWB option. I just think he’s a weirdly limited option for Arteta. It’s why I don’t think Arteta would go for Kamara at Marseilles, who is the superior all round defender.

ohboy!!! wrote:
Claudius wrote:

I’m preparing for the summer of Sarr.
And Willian.

Sarr would be a good signing.

I would prefer Gabriel or Upamecano.

Stones is meh. On his day he is good in the air, and can pass the ball out, but he doesn’t appear focused. Did the city move happen to soon? Would he gain motivation playing regularly under Arteta? 

The problem with stones, is that there seems to be too many questions that need answering. 

I don’t see willian coming here at all. I think it is just speculation to help Willian’s cause to get a new contract at Chelsea.

With Stones, I am not entirely sure if he really has improved as a defender since he had his breakthrough season at Everton.

I feel that the cons overweigh the pros when it comes to John Stones transfer.

mentalvortex wrote:
ohboy!!! wrote:

Sarr would be a good signing.

I would prefer Gabriel or Upamecano.

Stones is meh. On his day he is good in the air, and can pass the ball out, but he doesn’t appear focused. Did the city move happen to soon? Would he gain motivation playing regularly under Arteta? 

The problem with stones, is that there seems to be too many questions that need answering. 

I don’t see willian coming here at all. I think it is just speculation to help Willian’s cause to get a new contract at Chelsea.

With Stones, I am not entirely sure if he really has improved as a defender since he had his breakthrough season at Everton.

I feel that the cons overweigh the pros when it comes to John Stones transfer.

I would tend to agree. The wild card is Arteta, and the knowledge he has of stones. Maybe he thinks he can turn him around?

I think that if the plan is to play a high line eventually, we should target another quick defender next to Saliba long term, but who knows what Arteta is thinking.

This summer is going to be so interesting.

mentalvortex wrote:
ohboy!!! wrote:

Sarr would be a good signing.

I would prefer Gabriel or Upamecano.

Stones is meh. On his day he is good in the air, and can pass the ball out, but he doesn’t appear focused. Did the city move happen to soon? Would he gain motivation playing regularly under Arteta? 

The problem with stones, is that there seems to be too many questions that need answering. 

I don’t see willian coming here at all. I think it is just speculation to help Willian’s cause to get a new contract at Chelsea.

With Stones, I am not entirely sure if he really has improved as a defender since he had his breakthrough season at Everton.

I feel that the cons overweigh the pros when it comes to John Stones transfer.

I would tend to agree. The wild card is Arteta, and the knowledge he has of stones. Maybe he thinks he can turn him around?

I think that if the plan is to play a high line eventually, we should target another quick defender next to Saliba long term, but who knows what Arteta is thinking.

This summer is going to be so interesting.

6 days later

[size=x-small][/size]

[size=medium]We need to get this over the line.[/size]

[size=medium]He would be huge[/size]

Hope so, despite not having paid attention to him as a player. Arteta has hinted that senior operations are in line with the ambition needed to ascend so we'll see what capital they raise in the end. So far this seems sequential in negotiations.
Also not clued up on journalists that much anymore but this guy is a little dodgy isn't he?

Romano is far from dodgy, this means we actually are trying. You guys think it's Guendouzi we've offered? Would've hoped his value was more than £23m.

What’s the difference? Just sell Douzi to someone for 20m plus and then pay out the clause.

we should be able to get at least 25m for one of the players we want to offload.

sounds like bullshit anyway.

Quincy Abeyie wrote:

You guys think it's Guendouzi we've offered? Would've hoped his value was more than £23m.

Lacazette I would have assumed, but I'm not sure Atletico would be able/eager to match his wages.

Seems odd, there's apparently £25m at least to spend. Find a short term loan (hello Stan) to raise another £25, and then sell one of Laca/Douzi/Torreira to anyone interested.

Meatwad wrote:

we should be able to get at least 25m for one of the players we want to offload.

sounds like bullshit anyway.

Romano has developed a pretty good rep in the last 2 years. There's something to it

[size=small][size=large]Arsenal's second bid for Thomas Partey rejected by Atlético Madrid[/size][/size]

[size=small]Atlético Madrid have rejected Arsenal’s latest offer for Thomas Partey and insisted they will not sell the Ghana midfielder for less than his €50m (£45.5m) release clause.[/size]

[size=small]Having first registered their interest in the 27-year-old in the spring, attempts to persuade Atlético to sell Partey for a cut-price fee have so far come to nothing despite the player having yet to sign a lucrative new contract.[/size]

[size=small]A bid of €25m plus a player was rejected a fortnight ago and it is understood Arsenal returned with a new offer of the same amount and out of favour midfielder Matteo Guendouzi . This was turned down by Atlético on Monday, with Arsenal having previously indicated they were unwilling to match Partey’s release clause.[/size]
[size=small]The Atlético manager, Diego Simeone, is desperate to keep Partey, who joined the club in 2013 and has two years to run on his current deal. Guendouzi has not played for Arsenal since the defeat against Brighton in June, with Mikel Arteta refusing to confirm the 21-year-old would be at the club next season.[/size]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jul/27/arsenals-second-bid-for-thomas-partey-rejected-by-atletico-madrid

So if we manage to sell Guendouzi for €25m then it's a matter of if Partey wants to come here or not I guess.

i guess since it's about meeting a buyout number we would have to come up with all the money upfront and if someone buys douzi for 35m or whatever it'll be paid in installments. that's the only bit of sense i can make out of trying to force a player swap in there when we would get better value separately on the open market.

I don't see how we can offer him improved wages along with an improved deal for PEA if we only have around 30m and we don't move the likes of Ozil & Co off the wages. Even if we could it would likely leave us skint to do anything else, and I don't see Partey alone as solving our creativity issues, let alone getting us back into top4 or regaining UEL if the other contenders continue to improve. Seems like the same issues we had with the squad recruitment under the previous regime.

His wages would be good at Atletico but maybe not really high. We will free up money from Mikhi at least apparently.

Asterix wrote:

His wages would be good at Atletico but maybe not really high. We will free up money from Mikhi at least apparently.

Reports were when we made an initial approach we offered to treble his current wages, which would take him to over 150k.  Also read that in the new contract from Atletico they are offering to double his current wages.

I guess I'm being a pessimist so I don't get disappointed after years of seeing transfer windows neglected.

Meatwad wrote:

i guess since it's about meeting a buyout number we would have to come up with all the money upfront and if someone buys douzi for 35m or whatever it'll be paid in installments. that's the only bit of sense i can make out of trying to force a player swap in there when we would get better value separately on the open market.

Was thinking the same. This is probably what’s going to be at the heart of our business. Cash.

This is a game changer transfer. Probably one of a few players who could come in and instantly improve the balance within the side

Come on Guendouzi. Annoying that we are only getting a £23m valuation on him. But I guess I wouldn’t even buy him at £10m after all his bullshit.

Claudius wrote:

Come on Guendouzi. Annoying that we are only getting a £23m valuation on him. But I guess I wouldn’t even buy him at £10m after all his bullshit.


I do miss Guendouzi's passion on the pitch. Can't deny that he cares. Pity he won't make up with Arteta

This does pretty much confirms guendo really is on the sale block. That kid really burned his bridges

Gazza M wrote:

Romano has developed a pretty good rep in the last 2 years. There's something to it

Romano is the best journalist on transfers out there.

If his release clause is true, at 45 and we offered 25...you would think it will happen and we will get 20 more milion in the end.

Claudius wrote:

Come on Guendouzi. Annoying that we are only getting a £23m valuation on him. But I guess I wouldn’t even buy him at £10m after all his bullshit.

After ali came out saying he fell out with every manager in France aswell his stock will have plummeted. Who wants an expensive project with consistent attitude problems. 

At least translate it for us ffs 😆

Oh 😆 In the app you can just press "translate tweet", but it looks like you have to press the tweet first. Just says we'll come back with a bid without any players involved.

Sounds good. Partey gives us our first grown man midfield since the invincible era. Partey and Ceballos is actually a really good midfield 2. It allows us to start thinking about how to structure a front 4. Then you can actually call Norwich for a Buendia etc., and not have to spend another 50-60m on a top shelf playmaker.